Published 26 May 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2144
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2144

News

Southall loses appeal against being struck off

Clare Dyer

1 BMJ

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The paediatrician David Southall has lost his legal challenge to a decision to strike him off the UK medical register for accusing a mother without justification of drugging and murdering her 10 year old son.

At the High Court in London Mr Justice Blake said that Dr Southall’s conduct was "truly shocking" and "an abuse of the role of consultant and expert instructed in ongoing litigation."

Dr Southall was appealing against a finding of serious professional misconduct by a General Medical Council fitness to practise panel and an order striking him off the register in December 2007 (BMJ 2007;335:1174, doi:10.1136/bmj.39420.690845.DB).

Described by the judge as "a consultant paediatrician of national and international renown," Dr Southall was a leading specialist in the field of child protection in the 1980s and 1990s. But he faced a barrage of complaints by parents, who accused him of overzealousness.

In a separate . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

GMC strikes Southall off medical register for serious professional misconduct
Owen Dyer
BMJ 2007 335: 1174. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Southall is barred for three years from child protection work
Owen Dyer
BMJ 2004 329: 366. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Immunising paediatricians against prosecution
Mark Struthers
bmj.com, 2 Jun 2009 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ